Todd Solondz isn't afraid to push the boundaries in his movies, focusing on themes such as suicide and paedophilia, with mixed results. Welcome to the Dollhouse was a brilliant portrayal of an outcast trying to fit in during adolescence and Happiness (the precursor to this film) was a ensemble story focusing on three sisters and the pitfalls that blight their lives and their families. Wartime is a semi sequel to Happiness in that all the characters are present although they are played by different actors. This is a rather jarring choice for people to comprehend if they are familiar with these characters already. In some cases such as Shirley Henderson replacing Jane Adams or Paul Reubens replacing Jon Lovitz the change in personnel is less obvious due to the physical similarities of the two parties sharing the roles. In other cases the change of cast is not only distracting but ruins the film. The decision go completely left field and replace Philip Seymour Hoffman with Michael Kenneth Williams strikes as having been made just to add a bit of.controversy to proceedings.
Happiness owes a lot of it's plaudits to the central role of Dr. Maplewood being played by Dylan Baker who turns a character who could have been one of cinemas all time most disgusting villains and adds heart and soul to it that in Wartime Ciaran Hinds cannot match up to, being somewhat underwritten as the part is in the latter.
Overall, although Life During Wartime has its problems you have to given Solondz his props for pushing the envelope and using his films as a vehicle for his own voice rather then compromising his vision, which rarely seems to be the case.
***
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